A big game from the big three of SIU women’s basketball helped the Salukis move past Loyola 73-64 on Friday.

SIU (20-11) got 51 combined points from senior center Dyana Pierre (13 points), senior guard Cartaesha Macklin (18 points) and junior guard Rishonda Napier (20 points) to win its first Missouri Valley Conference tournament game since 2013.

The Salukis outscored the Ramblers 27-19 in the fourth and held Loyola (14-16) without a point for more than four minutes until a layup by junior guard Taylor Johnson with 1:55 remaining in the game.

SIU overcame a nine-point deficit in the third quarter that started with a Napier 3-pointer at 6:09 to bring the Salukis within six. 

Loyola shut down the Salukis 3-point attack in the first half and limited them to shooting 20 percent from outside. The Ramblers held Napier to 10 percent (1-10) from the field and 0-5 from outside.

Junior forward Taylor Manuel finished with 16 points for the Ramblers despite being injured in the second quarter.

With the win, the Salukis will play the top-seeded Northern Iowa Panthers at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in Moline. 

The Dawgs have have a tough test going against the Panthers, who survived a 49-48 scare from Bradley in their first game of the tournament. Leading scorer junior guard Madison Weekly, who is second in the Valley with 17.9 points per game and junior forward Amber Sorenson, who averages 13.3 per game, will be hard for the Salukis to stop.

Weekly and Sorenson scored a combined 49 points in the 73-64 win over SIU on March 3. The Salukis allowed Weekly to score 28 in the 65-60 win on Jan. 3, but got 18 points and 18 rebounds from Pierre in the victory.